Fukushima Reactor 2: Radiation 10 Million Times Above Safe Level

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has reported that radiation level in the containment building of reactor number 2 at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant is an astounding 10 million times above normal.

Officialdom soon backtracked and said those radiation readings were not accurate and that new tests had been ordered. “The number is not credible,” said TEPCO.

“The subsequent retraction underscored the pressures Japanese officials and Tepco executives face in reporting information to the public. Government authorities and the company have been criticized for not providing information in a timely fashion to the public,” notes the LA Times.

Last week, Japan’s nuclear agency said levels of radioactive iodine in sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level. It claims one-half a liter of the water contains the same amount of radiation that a person can safely be exposed to in a year.

The United Nations’ nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.

The UN’s IAEA is only interested in looking out for its own interests.

It now appears the crisis will go on indefinitely. TEPCO said on Sunday it is not working to resolve the crisis. “We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation,” said a TEPCO spokesman. “High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water. There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged,” he added.

Appearing on Sunday talk shows, cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said radioactive water is “almost certainly” seeping from a reactor core.

TEPCO and the Japanese government have consistently covered-up the real nature of the threat and have lied to the public about radiation danger. In addition to avoiding safety inspections at the plant, TEPCO falsified safety and repair reports, according to documents released by Wikileaks. GE, the builder of the reactors, and TEPCO knew early on the plant was a disaster waiting to happen.

In addition to the high radiation levels at reactor number two, reactor number three is leaking. It runs on MOX or Mixed Oxide fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium, and is far more dangerous than the other reactors at the tsunami-crippled plant. MOX is two million times more deadly than normal enriched uranium.